Kings Redux: An ElfQuest Worldpool
by MrsGrizzley
Summary: Originally written in response to a writer's challenge, this story considers the question of how Kings of the Broken Wheel would have turned out had Suntop been left behind with his father.
1. Chapter 1

An old story, but one I'm just now posting here. This was originally written as something of a challenge, "What if Suntop had been left behind?" and it morphed from there into something much more primal, I think. I like this story and I still intend to go back and finish it. Originally this was the first two sections.

* * *

Kings Redux: Part One

In his dreams, Suntop is always a cubling again, standing in the Palace of the High Ones. In his dreams, Suntop hears his own voice speak aloud the wish that he could tell the High Ones not to be afraid, that everything would be okay. In his dreams, Suntop sees Rayek take his innocent words and put them to a terrible purpose. In his dreams, Suntop sees his cubling self sneak out of the room of the Scroll of Colors, running to find his father, suddenly afraid of (for?) Rayek. He screams at his child-self to turn back, to stay in the Palace, to stay with his sister and to do something to stop Rayek. But he is a voiceless spirit in his dreams and Suntop stands outside the Palace when it vanishes, and all Suntop can see is the agony on Father's face. All he can feel is failure.

Suntop woke with a start, his body spasming with grief and the sobs he felt honor-bound to muffle within himself. No longer the cub he was, Suntop did not yet feel like an adult. He could not. His father was locked in grief for Mother, Ember, and Skywise, and Suntop could not replace them. Suntop was Chief's Cub, and all he had was the magic that had caused the whole mess in the first place.

An old tree stood in the forest, marked with a cut for every turn they had spent there. Suntop didn't know how many cuts there were. Too many for him to count. But Father counted them. Every day Father counted them. And every day Suntop felt that he failed his father a little more.

He wasn't Ember.

A gentle hand reached over within the space that was his own den and pulled him close to a maiden's heart. _Lovemate._ The Sending was an invitation to pour out his grief and his sorrow and his frustration at his uselessness. She gave so much to him, and so willingly. He imagined that her mother must hold his father in this same way when he woke from nightmares of his own.

Tyleet wasn't Ember either. But she'd never had to be.

Suntop was Chief's Cub.

***  
Suntop sat in silent communion with Savah, thousands upon thousands of leagues away. It was the union of three gifts, his own magic, unmatched by anyone on this world of two moons save only Timmain, a piece of the Palace safe in Sorrow's End and crafted by a rockshaper gone with Rayek, and Rayek's own cub, the gifting of her mother for reasons of her own.

Venka was a surprise, and ultimately a welcome one. She kept the Black Snake away.

_Another dream, Suntop?_

Savah always knew when he'd had a dream. It was difficult, learning to use his powers when his teacher was so far away. Timmain was nearer, but Father needed Timmain more than he did. _Yes, Savah._ Somehow his anguish communicated itself and he could feel a wave of compassion from her spirit, enfolding him like his mother's arms.

_What you seek is in your heart. Search your heart for your answers._ She seemed to be trying to reach him from an even greater distance than the physical one between them.

She was right. If he was ever going to stop being a cub, he would have to find his own answers.

So he searched.

Entranced, he searched his heart as the sun rose and set again. Finally he blinked open his eyes to see Tyleet waiting for him, with a bowl of food beside her. She must have been to Aroree's cave, that was the only place where they would have a fire for the cooking of food for those who lacked appreciation for rarity.

Tyleet reached one hand out to gently brush away teardrops from his cheek. Her Sending was wordless, a concern and an incredible sense of love. He showed her the answer of his heart as he would have shown her the most beautiful flower in all the forest.

She saw, and understood, and smiled at him for having his own sort of courage. She'd never felt that he was less for not being his sister. _You must tell Cutter._

He nodded.

*******

One . . . two . . . three . . . four . . . five . . . six . . . seven . . . eight . . .

Cutter let his fingers run down the notched bark, feeling each and every cut as a wound in his soul.

Three eights and four . . . three eights and five . . . three eights and six . . .

He didn't know why he returned here, each day, to touch the mark of each passing turn and remember when he should forget. He was Chief, the Keeper of the Way, and he could not live it.

He had his son. The child-thief had not taken his son, just the daughter who would be chieftess, his lifemate, and his soul brother. High Ones, even looking at his son reminded him of all he had lost, all that had been stolen from him.

He didn't want to resent Suntop, but even looking at him hurt so much and Suntop would never be chief.

Eight eights times two . . . Eight eights times two and one . . .

Cutter heard the footsteps behind him, not quite Wolfrider-silent, but close. A tang on the breeze told him that it was his son, his magic-gifted son who would never be chief. He didn't want to resent him, but High Ones, sometimes it was hard. "What do you want, Suntop?" It came out as a growl.

Suntop hesitated. Countless turns of guilt and failure jeered at him from the notched tree. He wasn't his sister so what good was he? Suntop forced himself to turn away from that grief, comforted by the secret he carried, and had to tell.

"Father, we have to talk."

Something in Suntop's voice caused Cutter to turn and look at him, as if for the first time. He stood firm, not challenging, and yet, not cowed. His cub . . . wasn't a cub any longer. Cutter nodded to him, his feeling suddenly softer for some reason. "Very well, talk."

For a moment Suntop was stunned silent. He was here and had his father's attention and he didn't have the first clue of how to start. Then he took hold of the same courage that helped him leap into Winnowill's dark soul in search of Savah, took two steps forward and wrapped his arms around his father, putting their foreheads together, and showed him the wonderful, beautiful secret he had found within himself.

_Love cannot be stolen. Those we love can never be taken from us; not by death, not by time, not by theft. Mother and Ember and Skywise are here, with us, in our hearts, because we love them and they love us. Your power is in your family and your family is with you, no matter what. Rayek has not done it; he will not do it. We live, we breathe, we hunt, we ARE. You and I will survive until their return. We WILL be with Mother, Skywise and Ember again. We will look into Rayek's eyes and we will see him punished for the harm he has caused. I swear it, Father. We will see him punished._

Now it was Cutter's turn to be stunned into silence. There is only truth in Sending and that truth flooded into his soul, painfully bright and yet warm, like healing sunlight on all the frozen hurts in his heart. Awkwardly he wrapped his arms around his son and held him close, knowing without knowing how he knew that Suntop had been just as badly hurt by Rayek's theft as he was.

And then, in the unbroken rapport, Cutter saw another truth that Suntop had not said. The Chief is the tribe and all these years Cutter had been a dead chief, and so the Wolfriders had been a dead tribe. He saw the thorny wall rising like a Green Mountain on this new land, and he shuddered in horror. If Cutter could not live, then the Wolfriders would become like the Gliders, living, but dead, and without cubs.

Cutter determined to live.

No, Suntop would never be chief, but he didn't have to be.

***  
Cutter never went back to the Tree, and that night Suntop became Sunstream.


	2. Chapter 2

Kings Redux: Part Two

Sunstream rolled over in the furs of his den, suddenly awake. He lay there for a moment, trying to discover what exactly had awakened him in the middle of the morning. Granted, he had more problems than some sleeping while the sun was awake, and granted that Tyleet had been active the last couple of days as well. Still, something had awakened him, that much he knew.

Then he felt a . . . pull, and he knew that it was what had awakened him. Tyleet needed him and she was approaching the Holt. He was up and dressed quickly enough, running through the treetops until he met up with his lovemate and her wolf, and a strange bundle in her arms that was making faint unhappy sounds.

_Lovemate?_ Sunstream was confused and it colored the sending, even as his love of her did the same.

Tyleet looked up at him and lifted the edge of her draping top to show him the round-eared bundle. _I couldn't leave him. His parents tied him to a tree. I tried to give him back yesterday. I was sure it was a mistake. I couldn't just let him die._

Sunstream enfolded her and the cub in his arms, breathing in the scent of her hair. _It's alright, lovemate. I'll stand with you. Let's show our new cub to my father._ She looked up at him and the expression of joy on her face made all the trials that were to come worth it. Not for nothing did Pike tease them all with his songs. It did no good to tell her "No", so why bother?

****  
Back at the Holt, the first one to spot the three of them coming in was, not surprisingly, little Whisperling. The small girl-cub looked at them and her eyes grew round. "Mother! Mother! Tyleet's got something in her arms! What is it?"

From the den she shared with Treestump, Clearbrook looked out at the cub she'd thought was beyond her ability to have. That theirs was the first cub to renew the tribe after Cutter's healing was a shock to everyone, including themselves.

Quickly the tribe gathered and Clearbrook put her hands on Whisperling's shoulders. "It's a human cub, little one."

Tyleet knealt and showed the tiny face to Whisperling, who looked close into the sleepy, hungry eyes. "Humans have cubs? What's it doing here?" Now that she didn't need to get anyone's attention, Whisperling dropped into the hoarse, cubling almost-whisper that was her customary mode of speech. There was already a running bet that when she learned to Send she'd be as quiet as Strongbow.

Cutter stood before them. "What's going on?"

Sunstream faced his father. "Tyleet found a human cub, abandoned, even after an attempt was made to return him to his people. They don't want him. He's our cub now."

Pike choked on a snicker and then began softly whistling the tune to his song about Tyleet. Cutter sighed. He'd lost this fight before it even began. "Very well."

Later, they named their son Little Patch.

****  
Little Patch had been with them almost eight turns when the proverbial lightning struck the tribe. Pike was telling stories of the old times during a Howl, and really got into the emotion of a long-ago hunt. His retelling took on a strength that awakened his listeners to the feelings of hunter and hunted and then he looked across into Aroree's eyes, and Recognition hit them.

After the shock came joy, Pike's joy at Recognizing, his lifemates' joy that he was going to be a father, Aroree's joy at knowing that she would carry life within her. What did not follow was a lifemating. Aroree didn't need one, not at that time, and Pike already had lifemates. She was content with that.

Later, Little Patch tugged on Sunstream's sleeve to get his attention. "Father? What's going on?"

Sunstream smiled at the boy-cub who was like him in preferring cooked meat, like him in needing extra care and warmth in the cold of winter. "It is Recognition. Sometimes an elf maiden and an elf lad will meet eyes, and they know each other in that instant. It means new life, Little Patch. There will be another cub for you to play with soon."

Little Patch thought carefully about the matter. "Will it ever happen to me?"

Sunstream felt his heart squeeze with future grief. "I don't know, my son. You are human. Humans bring life into the world differently than elves do."

"But I want to be an elf. I want to be like you."

Sunstream smiled and held the boy-cub close. "I know. It is enough. You will be who and what you are, and I would ask nothing else of you." He squeezed the child close, the son he would lose all too soon. "I love you, Little Patch. Your mother loves you. Don't ever forget that."

Boy-children, though, like Little Patch, are not patient with hugs and holdings, and soon enough he wriggled away to play games with Skot and Krim, and learn how to make beautiful and useful things from Moonshade and Whisperling, who was becoming quite a maker herself. Beads of wood, and beads of stone, and tiny seeds were starting to embellish almost every article of clothing that Whisperling touched, and Little Patch loved to watch the transformations.

All too soon, Sunstream knew, he and Tyleet would lose their son. But oh, they had him now, and they loved him dearly.

********

Sunstream had felt it all day. A lingering sense of impending doom. It was no less unnerving than when he had been a cub and had carried a warning he could not understand to his father, who had chosen to walk into the snake's den anyway.

Something terrible was going to happen.

Tyleet watched Sunstream with worried eyes, reached out a hesitant hand to brush his. He grabbed hold of her hand and pulled her into his arms. He needed her warmth, her solidness, her reality to combat the ephemeral tragedy that hung over all their heads. She held him just as close, something itched in the back of her mind, too, and she didn't know what it was either.

A wolf cub was missing from one of the litters. The High One had wandered off in grief. The memory brought a spasm of pain as he sensed . . . something. _The High One!_

Just then the sending rang out from Cutter. Timmain was in trouble. Sunstream felt a surge of panic as he spotted his father's form receding quickly into the treetops with Zhantee falling behind him far too quickly.

Everything happened so fast!

Zhantee's shield wasn't quick enough. Timmain was unhurt, but Cutter . . . And now the tribe couldn't find him even as the human hunters ran off after their escaped prey.

The only thing the tribe could do was gather together and Send, and hope their love was enough to hold their chief to life, because Sunstream would never be chief in his place and Ember was still far too far away.

Sunstream retreated to his den, followed by Tyleet. He couldn't see the anxious faces of his tribe, and the children born since he'd carried his heart-truth to his father and healed him.

Whisperling was a beautiful maiden now, grown calm and patient as her mother, with a grin that could only come from her father, and not quite as silent as Strongbow, but almost.

Aroree had given Pike a floating son, and they called him Breeze. He had as many moods as the wind and a good heart. And for all his youth, he had a lifemate he adored in ShenShen.

It was another joining that surprised the tribe. And even more surprise when they had a cub outside of Recognition's power. Young Nutmash was almost the age that Suntop and Ember had been when Rayek . . . when his mother, his twin, and his Uncle Skywise . . . Sunstream held Tyleet as close as he could, burying his face in her hair, hiding his sobs of fear in her gentleness.

_I can't lose Father, too. I only just found him._

Tyleet was silent, but she held him just as close. She shared his fear, his worry, his desperation.

Just then a Sending rushed through the tribe. Cutter was going to be fine. He was with the Trolls in their subterranean kingdom. A flint arrowhead was stuck in his rib, but he would survive.

Relief flooded through Sunstream, releasing the tears he hadn't shed. _Oh High Ones! . . ._ He pulled back his face to look into Tyleet's eyes and saw tears shimmering there. Tears for Cutter, who had been like a father to her; tears for him. Her eyes had never looked so beautiful . . . or so deep.

_Sohn?_

_Kyr?_

For a silver moment they were still, stunned by the enormity of the gift they had been given. Then joy as painful as the fear followed swiftly. Tyleet's first thought was of the cub they would create, and how much it would mean to Cutter, to their chief, that his son would have a cub.

****  
It took a while for the tribe to notice the change in Cutter. Everyone rejoiced for Sunstream and Tyleet, and teased the young father-to-be about how much he treasured his lifemate. But within a season the change had become too pronounced to ignore.

Cutter was exhausted.

He led the hunts. He kept order in the tribe. But the light was gone from his face and even his hair hung limply.

The flint chip still in his rib rubbed at him every day, a reminder of his mortality, a nagging voice that said that he would not survive, that he would not see his lifemate on this side of the Palace.

No one was surprised when he called the tribe together one evening. Tyleet's belly had only just begun to fill out into the curve of pregnancy, though it was well hidden by her poncho.

But no one knew what Cutter could do. No one else could lead them and Sunstream would never be chief.

They hadn't thought of wrapstuff, but it made sense. Better to sleep and know nothing than to wake to exhaustion and a burden he couldn't carry any longer.

Venka was the first to stand and offer to sleep with him. Sunstream and Tyleet the second. The tribe was surprised by Tyleet's decision, what with the cub and all. Her answer was a smile. Her cub could be born just as easily on the other side of the wait as on this side.

Then Nutmash stood and volunteered to be an agemate for the future chieftess he had never met, since her brother was now so much older than she.

It didn't take long after that for the rest of the tribe to agree to the long sleep.

Cutter tried to argue with them. He wanted them to be Wolfriders, not turn their back on the Way as he must. Sunstream merely placed a hand on his shoulder and smiled in a way that reminded Cutter strongly of his mother. Wolfriders follow their chief; that, too, is the Way.

Besides, Sunstream had promised him that they would stand together to see Rayek humbled. In the loss of his sister, Sunstream had learned the strength of his own Wolfrider blood.

So, in the end, they slept away the eons, until the night that a light shone out above the human city and a crystalline structure appeared on the top of a timeworn mountain.


End file.
